I have some constructive criticisms I’d like to post about the achievements in Season 1.
This is not a discussion about server performance, queues or anything other than the actual achievements.
I’m a regular WvW player but not someone who lives in there, or never goes in there except for monthlies. I hope my perspective is balanced.
Here’s a summary of the actual achievements and then my observations on the system as a whole…
Advanced Mists Defender: 450 kills. The monthly is 50. The Season is ~2 months long. So, about 4-5 times more kills are needed to achieve in WvW. I don’t really have a problem with this as fifty is essentially one or two zerg v zerg battles and 450 kills in 2 months is very doable. Maybe the monthly needs looking at?
Big Spender: OK, fine way to introduce people to the WvW laurel vendor and remove some badge bloating from the economy.
Camp Crusher: 100 camps. I’ve done ~1000 in a year. 2 months for 100 seems OK if a little high. 75 may have been more in line.
Castles in the Air: 5 Stonemist captures. Again, a bit too high and it assumes/insists you play EBG a lot. Some guilds & people specialise in the borders. 1 (token) or 3 would be more reasonable.
Demolition Expert: 30 walls/gates. Apart from the fact it appears to be bugged. Why on earth would I kick a treb/cata/ram expert off just to get this achievement? I’m an AC specialist for siege. Helping with DPSing them down should be fine but it seems to be at 0/30 despite taking down a dozen doors over the weekend.
Guard Killer: 500. Just a side achievement for doing the rest – I’m not sure if it’s a fair amount til I’ve done the ‘real’ stuff
Leapers in the Mists: No. Please, just no. What have JP’s got to do with WvWvW? ~25% of all WvW achievements for JPs?? One would have been ample as an introduction to WvW JPs – any more is just…wrong :p
Master of Ruins: 50. So, if I take one+ ruin per day for the next 7 weeks I’ll just about get the achievement. Too many. Ruins players will have this in a few days, everyone else will have to take time out of having fun just for an over-extended achievement.
Mist Merc Camps: 50. A PvE achievement….and 50 times. I’m crying here. Too many, wrong game mode. I think it’s fine to nod in their direction with a ‘Take Ogres a few times’ achievement…but 50?!?
No Tower Too High: 30. Perfect. Weekend WvWers can get this done with some solid play.
Defense Restorer: 500 is too high IMO. Will just lead to people wasting precious supply on walls that are being trebbed etc.
Sentry Capture: 225. Too high. That’s nearly 5 a day every day of the season.
Supplies Severed: 225. Too high. That’s nearly 5 a day every day of the season.
The Keeps: 10. Perfect.
World Ranker: 50. Or 125,000 wxp. Yuck. This seems too high. Maybe an attempt to get more badges spent.
So, overall not great when individually analysed. But, as a system I think it is a far bigger failure…
15/19 Ach required (79%). Too high in itself. WvW has many specialists. Specialists in different maps, in building up places and dolly escort, in various siege types, in camp/sentry capping, in ruins fighting etc. Having to fulfil 79% of all modes (including just plain non-WvW activities like JPs and Merc camps) is wrong IMO.
Next systemic failure: Tying achievements to arbitrary amounts and not the dailies…
My suggestion would be: if you want people to log in regularly even if only for a small amount then dailies are great e.g. instead of cap 100 camps, do the camp daily for 10 days.
Tying dailies to the Living World has worked really well in PvE to get the required number of achievements, but you’ve failed to use this great system in WvW achievements. I believe that this is a mistake and this first season is going to feel like a horrible grind to do elements that players do not want to do.
Last point on how the system fails IMO…
What about the already existing WvW ‘achievements’? I really thought these would be reworked and people could get some retroactive acknowledgement of their activity levels in WvW. One title at 250,000 is a bit silly and this was ripe for utilising properly rather than ignoring.
Summary (or the TL,DR bit)
- Systemic failure of WvW achievements:
- They should be based on dailies, not arbitrary amounts
- They don’t allow for the specialisations which have grown up in WvW – everyone is forced to put in some proper hours into every element of WvW
- What about all the achievements people already have which have never been acknowledged?
Thanks for reading
[EU] Gandara